Session to bring policy pitches into focus

Tuesday

Jan 22, 2013 at 9:02 PM

BATON ROUGE — While the administration’s proposed budget and tax swap plan will in large part define the Legislature’s spring session, hundreds of other bills targeting everything from firearms and school safety to judicial pay raises and coastal spending are being planned and plotted.

Jeremy AlfordCapitol Correspondent

BATON ROUGE — While the administration’s proposed budget and tax swap plan will in large part define the Legislature’s spring session, hundreds of other bills targeting everything from firearms and school safety to judicial pay raises and coastal spending are being planned and plotted. The regular session convenes April 8 and will adjourn two months later. In between, lawmakers will usher their bills through committee hearings and floor debates, and hopefully to the desk of Gov. Bobby Jindal for final approval. While filing deadlines are staggered over the next three months, lawmakers are preparing the bills and working on the concepts they want considered. Jindal’s administration is also crafting its budget proposal and far-reaching package to eliminate income taxes in exchange for greater sales taxes and other changes. During the last fiscal session, held during odd-numbered years, there were slightly more than 900 bills introduced. A similar load is expected this year as well, with an array of topics just as assorted.

As President Barack Obama is pushing his own firearms policy in Washington, Jindal has also announced he would seek legislation in the coming session to improve gun safety in Louisiana. Jindal wants to enable the state to report an individual’s eligibility to purchase firearms based on mental health records to the federally administered National Instant Criminal Background Check System database.“Too often, both in Louisiana and in states across the nation, the mentally ill are slipping through the cracks and getting lost in the system,” Jindal said.The Legislature’s Homeland Security Committee is likewise holding meetings to see if there could be other new security measures added in Louisiana to head off a school shooting like the one in Newtown, Conn. While it does not have proposals ready to go, the committee heard from law enforcement and education officials last week. They all agreed that plans in place at schools should be strengthened, and coordination between involved parties and first responders should be enhanced. Possible ideas for legislation included required shooting drills at schools and establishing a centralized hub for school-safety activities within the Governor’s Office on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Also connected to federal action, state lawmakers are expected to review a plan for spending millions of dollars in fines resulting from BP’s 2010 oil spill, said House Natural Resources Chairman Gordon Dove, R-Houma. “That’s something we’re going to be looking at closely,” Dove said. The money is destined for coastal projects, he added, and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is working on its proposal for how those dollars will be spent.

Most chatter about money will still involve the administration’s proposed budget, but Rep. Dee Richard, an independent from Thibodaux, said a conservative group of lawmakers will probably move forward with fiscal reforms of its own. There is already a lawsuit that has been filed by Reps. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, and Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, members of the Budget Reform Campaign, claiming the budget illegally relies on non-recurring dollars and improper contingencies. According to the Division of Administration, the lawsuit could trigger $831 million in cuts to health care and education, when matching federal dollars are included. Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, said Tuesday an agenda of policy ideas could be released as soon as next week.Richard said he expected new transparency and public record bills to be debated during the coming session, too. Meanwhile, other lawmakers like Rep. Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette, are considering resurrecting bills that were stalled in last year’s session. Landry said “it’s possible” that she will reintroduce legislation this spring to force local school boards to notify parents of school bus drivers’ criminal convictions.

In a similar vein, the Board of Regents is looking for a lawmaker to again file legislation that would authorize practically all management boards of each university and college system to raise tuition amounts, but not above the southern regional average. Under the proposal, higher tuition fees could be charged for high-cost programs that are in demand, and institutions would be allowed to charge on a per-credit basis rather than a static fill-time rate capped at 12 credit hours. Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, sponsored a similar constitutional amendment during last year’s regular session and said he plans on resubmitting it for the April session. Also making a comeback this session will be legislation to create a special breakaway school district in southeast Baton Rouge and increase the pay for Louisiana’s judges.The pay-raise bill, if reintroduced, would dole out salary increases ranging from $17,500 to $21,500 over a five-year period, based on a plan endorsed by the Judicial Compensation Commission.

Jeremy Alford can be reached at jeremy@jeremyalford.com.

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